How does a $10 ticket for biking without a light turn into a $600 fine, a court date, and an arrest warrant? Senior Aditya Singh found out last month.

Singh was driving back from dinner in Palo Alto with some friends Nov. 24 when he rolled through a stop sign at the intersection of Santa Teresa St. and Lomita Dr.

When Singh was pulled over, the police officer looked up his record and told him that there was an arrest warrant issued in his name for a ticket issued fall quarter of his sophomore year.

Singh said that after the police officer called for additional officers for backup, she had him get out of the car and put his hands behind his head.

“She dragged me to her police car and basically pushed me against the car, and she took my hands and told me exactly how she wanted them,” he said. “She was just roughing me up.”

Confused, scared, and nervous, with images of the recent tasering at UCLA running through his mind, Singh said the officer searched his pockets and asked if he had drugs or weapons until the officer realized he was not a threat.

“I’ve never been pulled over before,” he said. “I’m from India, so I’ve never really driven here before. In India, when somebody pulls you over, it’s not intimidating. It’s usually like a casual conversation.”

Singh said he received a $10 fine around a year ago for biking without a bike light and mailed in a check, which was apparently not received. Staying in India last winter quarter, he was unable to receive warnings at Stanford through the mail. When he did not reply, he was given a court date. His failure to appear led to the arrest warrant that he learnt of just last week.

When Singh returned to Stanford in the spring, he changed his post office box, and therefore had no way of getting any of his winter quarter mail.

Singh has been given a court date in January to dispute the $600 fine, and if he fails to appear this time, he will be arrested. The arrest would go on his permanent record.

Singh said being unaware of a warrant for his arrest for the past two years scared him the most, adding that he could have been caught anywhere, and under much worse circumstances.

“I got my drivers’ license last year, so I was thinking that before issuing my license they would check my license and tell me about [the warrant],” he said. “If they had at least warned me that I had this violation pending against me, I could have taken care of it.”

Stanford Police Deputy Victor Lee said that a citation for biking without a light is like any other ticket. If it remains unpaid after the receipt of a courtesy notice, the matter moves from the purview of the police to the traffic court, which issues arrest warrants.

“We do run across people who have warrants and don’t know about them,” Lee said. “It’s not our obligation to tell people [about their warrant]; usually the court does.”

Singh said the Stanford police were “as nice as they could be.”

“But,” he added, “they still have to follow protocol — the whole getting out of the car, roughing me up a bit, making sure I don’t have weapons. For me that was extreme, but for them it’s a standard procedure.”

The police did not know what Singh’s arrest warrant was for until he had gotten out of the car.

“I was basically treated like a criminal for those few minutes, because they thought I was,” he said.

Lee confirmed that police do not initially know for what crime an arrest warrant is issued, with warrants for violent crimes and drugs not uncommon.

“Hey, things happen,” said Lee after hearing about Singh’s unfortunate set of circumstances. “He just needs to tell the judge, ‘Here’s the check I wrote; here’s the date I wrote it.’ It’s not like he’s going to go to jail or anything. It just needs to be explained to the traffic court.”

A Facebook group started by Singh’s friends, “Save ADI from JAIL!” boasted 45 members last night.